In the bedroom down the hall
by Dirtkid123
Summary: Dear Evan Hansen song fic


In the bedroom down the hall

"Mommy?" Little feet pattered down the hall to a big room with a king sized bed in it. Groggily Pepper sat up, blinking the sleep away from her eyes, her gaze settling on Morgan. "What is it Sweetheart?" She asked quietly, hoping that the young girl had just had a run of the mill nightmare. "Did Daddy leave because I did something wrong?" Morgan whispered sadly.

"Oh baby, of course not.. do you remember what your daddy told you? He loved you 3000..

remember the way your dad talked about your Brother, Peter? And how he missed him?" When Pepper received a tiny nod, she continued to explain. " it's the same thing, sweetheart. Peter was gone.. for forever it seemed.. but your daddy found a way to bring him back.. and he gave his life up so that others would have their family back too.. it's no ones fault.. not yours, or Peters, or mine.. or even the Avengers. Daddy left so that he could save everyone else. And it hurts.. but we know that he's resting now.. and that's all we can really believe." Finishing telling Morgan the watered down version of why her dad wouldn't come back, was hard.. trying not to weep was harder.

Colonel James Rupert Rhodes stood at attention, as the masses of grateful people came by the Avengers compound, leaving flowers in their wake. He couldn't help tearing up, but also feeling numb inside. Clutching an old raggedy MIT sweatshirt, he walked down to the lab where Tony used to work and play with his bots. Tony had never liked this shirt.. claiming it itched too much. opting for stealing Rhodes' clothes instead, while at college. Still, once they had graduated, Rhodey had saved all of Tony's MIT clothes.. even though he knew that Tony wouldn't ever wear them.. and that his parents wouldn't even think of saving anything of Tony's.

But Rhodey kept it all.. and he still kept it to this day, cause it made him think of his brother.. and the 14 year old genius that he was, in the bed right next to his.

As Tony had gotten older, he began to lose his remaining innocence, at a rapid pace.. but one thing he always had, was glow stars on the ceiling, so he could count them, instead of sheep. And once Obadiah Stane took them down, citing he was way too old to have those, Tony would have JARVIS project them in his room.

Once Tony got older, he had a hard time remembering to eat, and sleep. He was always too busy for things like that. And Harold Hogan knew that that couldn't continue.. so eventually he would have to drag him up from the workshop, going to battle every evening, on the quest for Tony's health.

Turns out, the way to his stomach were cheeseburgers. Some lingering memory of Peggy Carter and Edwin Jarvis both trying to get a picky eater to ingest some food.. even if it was a greasy burger.

Pepper had thought she knew some way that She'd get through to Tony..

to get him to stop making suits, and to live their lives together.. in a happily ever after sort of way. But she knew she was fighting a war where're no one walked away, the winner.. because every day he pulled a little more away, trapped in his PTSD and pressured him to see the counselors and the clinics, to get him medicated and calmer..

because maybe they could take away that pain and panic in his eyes..

Though Maria Carbonell-Stark tried, oh she did try, to give her child the world, and to get Howard to give him everything he had.. and she thought that could be enough.. but found that all her efforts were for naught.

Did she let Tony, her bambino, down? What else could they do?

Tony was such a special boy, and he surpassed both her and Howard intellectually and emotionally..

Everything she ever did, she did it all for him..

Anything to make him happy..Anything at all.

Anything for her boy in the bedroom down the hall.

Morgan watched in silence as her mother sobbed quietly, In the bedroom down the hall.. trying to decide if she should wait another day to pack the boxes of her daddy's stuff away.

Knowing that once she was through, there was only one thing left to do..

Remember.


End file.
